Second Life Avatars Consume As Much Electricity As Brazilians

According to the website itself, Second Life is a 3D online digital world imagined, created and owned by its residents. Many real companies such as American Apparel and Sears are represented virtually within its borders. The community has even produced real life millionaires! Clearly this virtual world and its near 2.5 million resident avatars have real life implications. With roughly 4000 servers running at full power at all times, the environmental implications of Second Life are not negligible. Fellow blogger Nicholas Carr recently did a back-of-the-envelope calculation comparing the impact of actual humans and Second Life avatars. Stunningly, it turns out that the average Second Life avatar consumes about as much electricity as your average Brazilian! If curious, you can follow the math that leads to this conclusion here. Perhaps introducing carbon offsets – real or virtual – to Second Life is in order… Has anyone done that yet? :: Rough Type